Field
The present disclosure relates to methods and systems for testing steel specimens for hydrogen embrittlement, and in particular to incubating micro-cracks by applying a tensile load to a test specimen for a selected time period, then while sustaining the load, chilling the test specimen with liquid nitrogen and/or other cryogenic fluid.
Description of Related Art
The presence of hydrogen within steel and steel alloys causes embrittlement or the potential for weakening and failure of the steel and steel alloys under stress. Hydrogen embrittlement testing is important to industries, such as for example the airline industry, where steel must be tested for structural integrity. Current systems and methods for hydrogen embrittlement testing require extensive periods of time, for example about 200 hours or greater.